Keyholes in Time
by chocolatebearturk
Summary: Short missing scene drabbles with a Ten/Donna bias. T for safety.
1. Silent Thanks

**silent thanks**

* * *

For a moment she simply gasped from her position on top of the Doctor, knocked out of breath by the jump and resulting crash to the floor of his… TAR-something. Ship. Box. His chest rose stutteringly underneath her and she rolled off quickly, trying to resist the urge to roll her eyes when he breathed a sigh of relief.

He got up quickly and ran to the control thingy in the middle of the room, leaving her to sort out her tangled skirt and check her own self over for injuries—a bit hard to do when the floor was swaying underneath her.

_Thoughtless prawn_. She wrinkled her nose after she thought it—it really wasn't a nice thing to think about someone who'd just saved her life. The floor underneath her vibrated with a sudden humming sound and she was up on her feet like a shot, tangled in her skirt or no. She put one hand on the rail and immediately snatched it back when she felt the same vibration running through it. She instead grabbed onto one of the coral-like beams for balance.

"Look, I'm _sorry_," the Doctor was saying and she turned to look at him. He was dashing about the controls, flicking switches and turning knobs. She could only guess he was talking to the ship, because he certainly wasn't looking at her. His eyes were trained on the… the glow-y column thingy as he continued, "I _know_ you're not a lorry—"

The humming sound increased and Donna winced when the grille under her feet rattled in the resonance.

"How else was I supposed to save her? She was in a movingcar!"

Donna's cheeks grew hot at that. The TAR-thingy was angry at the Doctor because of her. It wasn't until that thought was fully formed that she realized just how _odd_ it sounded, but with the way this day was turning out…

"Okay, okay, I'll find us some place to land, just hold on," he said, glaring at the ceiling. The hum intensified for a moment and then died away.

He turned over a few more switches, ducking out of the way when sparks flew up from the console. The floor, which had been rocking pretty steadily, began to level out and Donna felt safe enough to let go of the coral. At the last moment, they hit a bump that nearly knocked her flat on her bum, but she managed to catch herself on the rail. A flare of heat caused her to shriek—something beside the ramp was on fire.

The Doctor was on it before she knew what had happened. He grabbed a silvery fire extinguisher from… somewhere and gestured at her, saying, "Get outside! It's safe; I'll be there in a second!"

She backed off as he began spraying and finally turned around toward the doors. Before she slipped outside and into the… wind? Yeah, wind. Before she stepped out into the wind, she patted the door frame in silent thanks.


	2. In Flight

**in flight**

* * *

"So," the Doctor said, grunting a bit as he lifted a leg to kick at a lever that he couldn't quite get. Donna rolled her eyes and steeled herself before she let go of the rail (which she'd been gripping rather tightly) to flip the lever in the direction he'd been aiming for. He beamed at her. "Thanks! So where are we going, exactly?"

"Just this little hill down by my house," she said. She smiled softly and, seeing him going for another control that was just out of his reach, put her own hand on it. He gestured for her to turn it and she did. A spark flew up from the console and she jerked back with a giddy shriek. "Is it supposed to do that?"

The Doctor rushed around beside her and began flicking switches in a seemingly random pattern. "Yes," he said. Then he frowned. "Well, no. Well, I don't actually know." After a moment of looking thoughtful—and another shower of sparks forcing him to run round the console to the other side—he changed the subject.

"What's so special about a hill by your house?" He grabbed hold of something that looked uncannily like a bellows and began pumping it.

"Well, you can get a great view of Mars on a clear night," Donna said. She saw him lifting his leg again and flipped a promising-looking toggle, tamping down on the pride that swelled in her chest when he beamed at her once again.

"You realize that we can actually i_go/i_ to Mars, don't you?" the Doctor asked. "We can go when there's people there—Martians. They're very nice, actually. Like Canadians, except with green hair."

She looked him over with a wry grin. "I suppose that makes you i_definitely/i_ not a Martian," she said teasingly.

He opened his mouth to respond but the ship rocked underneath them and they were thrown off-balance. The Doctor managed to catch Donna in his arms, keeping her from falling into the railing. For a moment they just stood there, breathing hard.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked softly. Donna nodded. After a moment, he seemed to realize that he still had hold of her and let go abruptly, clearing his throat. He went back to the console to adjust more controls.

After a moment, Donna walked up beside him. "My gramps goes up on the hill most nights—sits and looks at the stars. He always had a thing for astronomy, always wanted to touch the stars."

The Doctor looked sharply at her. "Donna…"

"But the thing is, Doctor," she continued. "He's not as young as he was. And if it's as dangerous as it was the last time… I think he'd rather stay home. But I want him to see it—I want him to see that it's real, that this is real. He was the only person to believe me when I said I was there when the Thames was drained. He—he was the only person I trusted enough to tell the truth."

The tension left the Doctor's body as quickly as it had come and he managed a small grin. He reached out and pressed a button—a button he'd spent an entire year working on after the horror that had been the motorway incident—that would make them materialize in the air, at the same time turning on an autopilot function that would keep them steady without his ball of twine.

"Maybe this situation calls for some… flying?" he said. Donna smiled and threw her arms around him in a grateful hug. When she pulled away, he gestured to the TARDIS doors and watched as she threw them open with the biggest grin.


	3. You're Brilliant

**you're brilliant**

_a/n: added a bit to the end of it, since the scene was so painfully short. I took a guess at which scene came after, so sorry if it's out of sync with the episode._

* * *

She felt like her heart had split in two and settled into the bottoms of her feet. It was the only way she could describe the sensation. The fear, the horrible dread that had overtaken her, weighed heavier and heavier as she crossed the room. She felt every step she took in her bones, could hear them echoing in the silent house.

The Doctor looked up from the rock he'd been inspecting as she approached. She got down on her knees next to him, folding her hands into her lap.

"Seventeen years old and her arm's turning to stone," she said quietly. The disbelief was clear in her voice, but she honestly didn't know what was more unbelievable to her. That of all places, of all times, they would have touched down on the day before Vesuvius erupted. That the girl's arm—her _arm_, her literal _arm_—was turning to stone. That—

"All the soothsayers of old Pompeii can see the future," the Doctor said, eyes on the ceiling as he processed this. "And yet none of them can see tomorrow."

She remembered the stand-off between the old man and Evelina and wondered, briefly, at the things they'd said about him—and her. _You've something on your back_.

"We're staying," she found herself saying, as if there had been another option. It didn't strike her until the words were out of her mouth that there was.

"Yeahhhh," the Doctor said, dragging the word out.

She looked down to meet his eyes and he looked up at her. She could see the emotions swirling in his eyes. The confusion and worry and the tiniest thread of excitement, wanting to see what the universe has cooked up for him this time. He smiled slightly, put the rock he'd been holding on the ground, and held out his hand to her. She took it, half expecting him to pull himself up. He just squeezed it.

"You're brilliant, you know," he said softly, eyes flicking between hers. Ever since she'd joined him again, he seemed to stare at her eyes more than anything. She wondered what he found so interesting. "I was a bit harsh before—with the Time Lord superiority business. You're really brilliant."

She snorted, although her cheeks went pink. "You're daft."

"No, really," he said. His face was screwed up in confusion at her dismissal. "You are."

"And you really are daft," she said. She squeezed his hand again and then got to her feet. "Well, then! Evelina and her mother have promised me some clothes to change into, as I've soaked these in sweat. I must look a _right_ mess…"

The Doctor's face screwed up again and he opened his mouth, but then seemed to change his mind. "Alright, then. You get changed and then we'll see about what we can do here."

Donna gave him one last smile and left the room.

She didn't know it, but his eyes remained on the doorway long after she was out of sight.


End file.
